National Survey of Families and Households

DESCRIPTION: The National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) provide data on family experience in the United States. This study permits a close examination of the resulting family compositions and household operations. Data were gathered on the composition of families, family background, and on the relationship of household members to each other. The NSFH data contains three waves: Wave I, Wave II and Wave III. Wave I was conducted from March 1987 through May 1988, one adult, the primary respondent, was chosen from each of the households in the sample. The NSFH Wave I sample was re-interviewed for the second wave of the survey, which was conducted from 1992 to 1994 and again for the third wave, from 2001 to 2003.

Data were gathered on sex, age, marriage, separation, divorce histories, adoption, child custody arrangements, stepfamily relation, the quality of respondent’s relationships with their parents, children, and in-laws, earnings from wages, self-employment income, interest, dividends, investments, pensions, social security, public assistance, and child support/alimony. In addition to the main interview conducted with the primary respondent, a shorter, self-administered questionnaire was given to the spouse or cohabiting partner of the primary respondent in Wave 1. An interview with the current or original spouse, cohabiting partners, surviving spouse or other relative and focal child was conducted in Wave II. At wave III, a subset of the original sample was re-interviewed by telephone using CATI technology. This sample included main respondents aged 45 and older with no focal children, and a parent sample made up of main respondents and their young adult focal children. Wave 1 spouses or partners of the main respondents were also interviewed.

CODEBOOKS: Codebooks for Waves I and II are available for check out in hardcover from the CFDR office, room 7D Williams Hall. Electronic forms of all the codebooks are available and may be downloaded from the Wisconsin ftp location Wave I codebook (ftp://elaine.ssc.wisc.edu/pub/nsfh/c1all.001), (ftp://elaine.ssc.wisc.edu/pub/nsfh/c2mainall.001) for Wave II and (http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/nsfh/wave3/NSFH3%20Apr%202005%20release/Nsfh3main04202005new.CBK) for Wave III.

DATA: Data are available for all three Waves in raw form, and as SAS and SPSS data sets. The data are located on the CFDR server: (R:\CFDR\Public\Data\NSFH). Included are subfolders for raw data, input programs for SAS and SPSS data files. Data may also be obtained by filling out a CFDR data request form or contacting the CFDR office at 372-7279.

LIST OF FREQUENCIES: Frequencies are available for all variables and waves in each codebook.

WEBLINKS: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/nsfh/home.htm
Full questionnaires, codebooks, data and skip maps are available for download. Also an FAQ page (http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/nsfh/faq.htm).